revivals

WIG OUT! Dahlings, I have huge news in this business we call show. John Cameron Mitchell, the genius behind the glam-rock-diva-drag-icon Hedwig, as in “Hedwig and the Angry Inch,” as in the coolest alt-rock musical ever,Â a show that makes “Rent” look like “Murder She Wrote” in the hipness department, is coming to San Francisco for V-day weekend for “Origin of Love” at the Mission’s Victoria Theatre (home of the kickass 2003 production of “Hedwig.”) JCM very rarely performs the Hedwig score anymore so this is great news for all of us Hedwig heads for whom that tuner remains a mind-altering drug capable of inducing euphoria through any iteration. Live on stage. Movie on DVD. CD. No matter. Me, I’ll take my Hedwig fix any way I can get it. Sigh.

Give Kent Nicholson’s regards to TheatreWorks. The gifted Bay Area director is resigning his post as new works guru for the respected Peninsula company to decamp to New York’sÂ esteemed Playwrights Horizons, where he will become director of musical theatre.

Nicholson began at TheatreWorks back in 2001 and he has beenÂ the driving force behindÂ the company’sÂ critically-acclaimed new play festival. HeÂ cemented his name in newÂ works circles by helming a lively series of provocative premieres from Liz Duffy Adam’s “Dog Act“Â (at Berkeley’sShotgun Players) and Craig Lucas’ “Small Tragedy“Â (at the Aurora) to Adam Bock’s “Five Flights” (first at San Francisco’s Encore Theatre Company and again off-Broadway) and Dave Eggers’ “Sacrament!” (at Campo Santo).

For several years, heÂ also served as co-artistic director of San Francisco’s adventurous Crowded Fire, alongside his wife, the actress Cassie Beck. And it’s unlikely that anyone who saw his potent revival of “All My Sons” at TheatreWorks a few years back will ever forget the experience. Incidentally, Beck recently starred in Bock’s Bridezilla comedy “Drunken City” at Playwrights Horizons.

Â “TheatreWorks is a better theater company because of the contributions of Kent Nicholson,” said artisticÂ director Robert Kelley in a release. “He has done a tremendous job in establishing and nurturing programs at our company that have attracted some of the most important voices in theatre and given them a place to explore new material.”

Nicholson will be transitioning out ofÂ the old gig and into the new one until next March. Bottomline: Our loss is the Big Apple’s gain.

Foolish beat? Break out the legwarmers people because ’80s pop sensation Debbie Gibson (think Britney 1.0) is back in action. The pop princess of yore will be putting the pipes to work for a good cause as part ofÂ a one night only cabaret. ThisÂ holiday-themed Help is on the Way benefit on Dec. 8Â will raise funds for the Richmond/Ermet AIDS Foundation and Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. In recent years, Gibson has also strutted her stuff in tuners such as “The King and I” and “Beauty and the Beast.”

Holiday theater unwrapped. Catch me on View from the Bay tomorrow between 3 and 4 p.m. on ABC-7. I’ll be giving out my five cool picks for holiday theater. These are the perfect stocking stuffers for your family, from the usual chestnuts (“A Christmas Carol“)Â to some untraditional seasonal treats (“Ennio”). I’ll also share some theater-going tips for parents. Yule love it.

Letâ€™s do the Time Warp again! Ok, so Halloween may be over but itâ€™s always the right time of year for a little hot patootie, no? The â€œRocky Horror Tribute Showâ€ is now out on DVD to the delight of cheesy sci-fi aficianados (read: nerds) everywhere. This is a stark concert-style gig that is definitely not recommended for newbies. If youâ€™ve never seen the real deal, I recommend taking in a midnight showing first. However, die-hard Rocky Horror heads will bask in the kitschy glow of Anthony Stewart Head (thatâ€™s Giles to all you Scoobies out there) who has been dubbed one of the best Franks ever. Weâ€™re talking 65 minutes of cult-hit goodness here, people. Grrr! Arrgh!

If you think British period drama is all tea and scones, think again. “Fanny Hill” holds nothing back in a deliciously carnal adaptation of the notorious 18th century romp. Bawds, pimps and scoundrels are out to corrupt our girl Fanny (Samantha Bond) as soon as she sets foot in pox-ridden London. In a world where money is life, the poor are scarcely considered human. Fanny must ply her, um, assets, as well as her wits if she wants to survive. Director James Hawes has the cast go the full monty as it were but the nudity is never gratuitous. The naughty bits exist side by side with a visceral sense of history and economics that bind Fanny’s struggles and adventures to our own. Screenwriter Andrew Davies, who also did “Bridget Jones’s Diary” and “Bleak House,” certainly knows how to find the tick of the modern in Fanny’s purrs and gasps. Bond is a delight. She lends Fanny a luminous quality and her narration of Fanny’s diary…the bodice-ripping memoirs of a woman of pleasure…are to-die-for. Ok, so it’s not “Pride and Prejudice.” (Although Austenites will note Alison Steadman’s leering turn as the uber-madam.) But if you’re in the mood for a bit of trumpet with your crumpet, “Fanny Hill” may well have you asking, “please sir, can I have some more?”

Katie Holmes, who seems to be more famous for being Mrs. Tom Cruise 2 than anything else, made her Broadway debut recently in Arthur Miller’s harrowing expose of the economics of war “All My Sons.” Were the critics smitten? Not so much.Â Here’s a smattering of the reviews for the one time doyenne of Dawson’s Creek. The Chicago Tribune damns her with faint praise: “Holmes does not embarrass herself in any way. But you wish she channeled a little more of her modest origins in Toledo,Â Ohio, and a little less of her current heightened reality.”Â And it goes downhil from there. The New York Times had this to say:Â “Ms. Holmes delivers most of her lines with meaningful asperity, italicizing every word … and I didn’t believe for a second that she really loved the honorable, naÃ¯ve Chris.”” NewsdayÂ dubbed her “”earnest and pretty, like a talented girl in a school play.” Ouch. Well, chin up, Katie,Â there’s always Hollywood, no?

Matthew Broderick will hoof it back to Bway next spring in a revival of Christopher Hampton’s “The Philanthropist.”

Beloved of theater buffs for his series of rubber-faced turns through hits such as ”The Producers” and ”The Foreigner,” Broderick is getting almost as famous for his stage chops as for his wife (SJP, natch).Â JK! Seriously I have been a fan of the actor since the days of ‘‘Wargames” and ”Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.” Anyone, anyone? Good times.

Anyhow, the Roundabout Theatre Company production, directed by David Grindley, is slated to open April 26, 2009 at the American Airlines Theatre. Broderick, in his first Broadway appearance since ”The Odd Couple” in 2005, will play a mousy professor named Philip. Other casting will be announced.

I don’t know about everyone else, but to me, he will always be Bueller, no?

Sacre bleu! ”The Phantom of the Opera” will once again emerge from the shadows. Andrew Lloyd Webber’s insanely popular musical, which spins around the romance and intrigue of the Paris opera house, returns to the city where it once held a five-year run. The music of the night is back for a special holiday engagement, November 26 to January 4 at the Orpheum Theatre in SF. ALW fans won’t want to miss this chance to get their ooh-la-la on but others might indulge in an emphatic quelle horreur, no?

Grease is the word for Taylor Hicks. Soul patrol meets teen angel when the former American Idoler hits the road in the national tour of ”Grease,” which slides into SF next year. The pop singer will play the role made famous by Frankie Avalon in this reality-show-based revival of the ultimate ’50s tuner. The musical may have gotten panned by critics but how much you wanna bet all the AI-heads out there will happily fork over the dough to see their gray-haired boy in action no matter what? Hey, there are worse things you could do!